My life with Python trikes Mk1 , Mk1.5 , Mk2 ?

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Whilst such a scenario will tell you it's just you and not the machine that knowledge does tend to remind you of any age related enfeeblement versus the reflexes of youth.
I whilst I understand this , I think you could have worded it better .......😢😢😢
 
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I whilst I understand this , I think you could have worded it better .......😢😢😢
Always remember that old age and cunning will defeat youth and vigour 9 times out of 10 ;)
 
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Stormbird, reading about your efforts reminded me about a kayak I owned years ago. It had a rounded bottom ( no keel) and in order to make it go in a straight line you had to fasten the optional rudder at the back. At the time I was going up a wilderness river many weekends all summer for trips ranging from 3 days to a week. I owned this kayak for many years and then I forgot to bring the rudder along this one time. Previous to this any time paddling without the rudder before resulted in the kayak slewing around after a short distance. Anyway since the trailhead was 3 hours from home I decided to try without the rudder. I discovered that the movement from my hips while using the double bladed paddle was causing the kayak to want to change direction. I would try to offset that by applying more effort to one half of the paddle stroke. Terribly inefficient. What worked for me was learning to sense the motion induced by my hips, somewhat similar to pedaling. Took awhile to relearn how to paddle but by the end of that weekend I never needed the rudder again. The trip up the river took about 6 hours and included 3 portages. In short, don't give up.
 
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Hugh

Nice story I wished I lived near to and had the time for some paddling [ bet it is a very Zen experience in the right place , like cycling ], once in Holland I even mused that you could tour most of the country from a canoe just be a bit slower than a trike.

Yes I think it is learnable , however my route is probably a bit to technical and a bit to ' oh sh*t '.

This route I do 3 times a week and due to domestic crisis's it is the only riding I am doing at present.

So the choice is either don't ride it at all or learn to ride it with fingers crossed I don't die whilst learning ;)

Paul
 
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So the choice is either don't ride it at all or learn to ride it with fingers crossed I don't die whilst learning ;)
So hard to pull the brakes on really hard while the fingers are crossed though. ;)
You probably need a trip to Saint Ives PE27 4JH to meet a mate for a chin-wag and a ride. :D
 
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Hi all

Nothing riveting to report , no trike ridding this week or next so time for a strip down and enhancement/problem fixing etc...



This is the steering damper bracket 3mm and bent ?

Could have been my roll over or the animal down the street who rode it , any roads up it ain't up to the job - on the list to be replaced by rubber stops so can wait.

Did not realise how little tyre clearance I had !



This is the view from underneath , strewth talk about the thickness of a fag packet !

So trying to give it a parking brake - handle bars on the front and a Nexus 7 speed IGH.

Can't currently get hub in , drop outs to close together a mistake when I spaced them with parts missing from the Nexus , someone had removed the roller brake and I did not realise it should have either the brake or a weather cover both making it wider ?
So I though till I looked closely at one of the drop outs and it leans inwards about 3mm , the missing 3mm to get the hub in blimey.
I think I spaced the frame parts the correct distance apart however the hub being a bit on the short side caused it to be welded in crooked.
Fixing it ? hammer , levering in vice , try welding to outside to get the contraction to pull it over ?
I think I will try second and if that does not work third ?
Else shave a bit off the inside with the flap disc , should work and it is only a proof of concept after all...

Plenty to do Paul
 
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To be scrupulously fair to the entire bike it should have rolled quietly away to a safe place as it saw Paul approaching for his test ride.
 
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To be scrupulously fair to the entire bike it should have rolled quietly away to a safe place as it saw Paul approaching for his test ride.
What I do in my own home is private and not to be put on the web ....:mad::mad::mad:
 
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Ok so managed to bend and grind drop outs enough to get Nexus 7 in and despite the abuse metered out the wheel is to all intents and purposes centred in the frame , that's a relief.

So was able to mock up parking brake and it looks as though it will work , just need to drill a hole and add control and cable.

A normal Flevo trike has 1 x elastomer and 1 x rod end bearing , these provide tilt and suspension

I have 2 x elastomer and 1 x rod end bearing , these 2 are used to kill the slew and to stiffen up the tilt department.

Question would it matter which orientation the elastomer's were in ?



So current I have 2 in tandem , however it would be easier to mount them side by side ?

Why you ask ? well it would then be a trivial task to swap them out too try different values ?
In tandem I have to remove the seat and split the 2 frames to get at the fixings ?
If they were side by side and I slotted the holes I could swap them out in under 5 minutes ?

Also the elastomer are rated on their load which is show as a vertical arrow and shear load which is show as a horizontal arrow.
However I am not using them in that manner , can I work out their resistance to bending from these figures ?

all for now Paul
 
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If you move to side by side it will hardly tilt at all. With them in line they only need to lean as you do, but side by side one would need to compress substantially and the other stretch a lot. They won't do that.
 
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Ok so managed to bend and grind drop outs enough to get Nexus 7 in and despite the abuse metered out the wheel is to all intents and purposes centred in the frame , that's a relief.

So was able to mock up parking brake and it looks as though it will work , just need to drill a hole and add control and cable.

A normal Flevo trike has 1 x elastomer and 1 x rod end bearing , these provide tilt and suspension

I have 2 x elastomer and 1 x rod end bearing , these 2 are used to kill the slew and to stiffen up the tilt department.

Question would it matter which orientation the elastomer's were in ?



So current I have 2 in tandem , however it would be easier to mount them side by side ?

Why you ask ? well it would then be a trivial task to swap them out too try different values ?
In tandem I have to remove the seat and split the 2 frames to get at the fixings ?
If they were side by side and I slotted the holes I could swap them out in under 5 minutes ?

Also the elastomer are rated on their load which is show as a vertical arrow and shear load which is show as a horizontal arrow.
However I am not using them in that manner , can I work out their resistance to bending from these figures ?

all for now Paul
If you mount them sideways as in "Proposal" I think you can forget any appreciable tilting to occur. Just my 2-penneth.
One will be in compression while the other is in tension. Whereas with "current" they are both in "Deform/bend" mode so they are not in total opposition to each other but are adding their resistance to deformation.
Just my thinking on this and you can test it off the trike?
 
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If you move to side by side it will hardly tilt at all. With them in line they only need to lean as you do, but side by side one would need to compress substantially and the other stretch a lot. They won't do that.
It is at this point my brain has problems ?

If you drawn a line in the direction of travel when they are in tandem mode if it tilts :-

One half of each elastomer will compress , one half of each elastomer will stretch ?

So as there are 2 elastomer's surely I get one whole one in compression and one whole one in stretch ?

One will be in compression while the other is in tension.
same as above ?

Just my thinking on this and you can test it off the trike?
I think the forces are to great for me to doing anything meaning full off the trike.

Paul
 
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When 2 elastomers are in-line all you are doing under tilt is pushing the top of them over to one side. When side by side you are trying to pull one apart and crush the other. If you keep them very close (almost touching) you will still get some tilt but less than when in-line. As you move them apart, and it doesn't need to be far, the amount they need to deflect gets much larger and so prevents any meaningful tilt. Perhaps having more resistance to tilt may help and as such side by side may improve the rideability but you'll certainly need to keep them very close indeed or you'll lose tilt quickly.
 
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When 2 elastomers are in-line all you are doing under tilt is pushing the top of them over to one side. When side by side you are trying to pull one apart and crush the other. If you keep them very close (almost touching) you will still get some tilt but less than when in-line.
Well I am intending to stiffen up the tilt response to see if IMHO it makes it more ridable , to that end I have bought some stiffer elastomers to try.
As you move them apart, and it doesn't need to be far, the amount they need to deflect gets much larger and so prevents any meaningful tilt.
That has given me an idea , I could just offset them enough to move the mountings along side the keel members instead of through them. They could still be in tandem but with offset centre lines so slightly side to side as well ?
I would just need 4 small pieces of 3mm angle where I wanted the bolts etc

thanks for your thoughts Paul
 
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Offsetting as you suggest could work well. If you could make the mounts adjustable that could give you something to try in order to find the best position.
 
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Made some changes managed to improve the chain line and can now get 6 of the 7 speeds without the chain hitting anything on he power side.

Attached a parking brake , not working to well unsure why ?

Bought some more elastomer's now have

2 x 84 kg so 168 kg resisting the tilting

Bought a 94 kg , 113 kg and 203 kg
Fitted the 113 kg and the 203 kg so now 316 kg resisting the tilting
An increase of around 45% to it's stiffness.
Quick tour around the estate seemed to go well , so a longer ride out next week is in order.

The Finns suggest Zero trail for the tilt axis , instead of the current infinite trail current used ?

Could be tricky to implement ?



That area looks like this :-



Still plenty to thing about ...

Paul
 
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